Music Arcades: Peter Wright: Pariahs Sing Om

Only a couple of days since I put myself through a triple album of drone music, and — oh joy — here's another.

Peter Wright's Last.fm bio notes that, "His myspace page lists something like 20 releases, most of which are difficult to track down". I didn't so much track this one down as let it gravitate toward me.

Wind back to the story of how I first tracked down a James Blackshaw album, and I promised then that you'd be hearing more of Gayle from Boa Melody Bar. I guess I was just browsing the album descriptions on her site (because I'm pretty sure I hadn't heard of Peter Wright before that), and what she wrote about this one caught my imagination. Gayle seemed friendly and approachable, so I asked her:

Thanks very much for the James Blackshaw CD you sent me - I love it.

I'd like to buy a Peter Wright CD, but don't know his stuff. I was thinking of asking for Pariahs Sing Om. Would you recommend that as a reasonable place to start, or would one of the others be a better starting point?

Please could you let me know what you would recommend, and could I reserve that?

Oh, the other factor might have been that I noticed my friend Eric had promoted a gig with Peter Wright on the same bill as James Blackshaw. I cursed myself for missing that. The lesson, rammed home for the nth time: never underestimate Eric. Happily he subsequently put on further gigs featuring both Blackshaw and Wright. My memory of PW at the No Zealand show three years ago is that he was a little upstaged by Birchville Cat Motel, who just went for all-out aural assault.

Wright was residing in London then, but has since returned to his native New Zealand. I'd love to understand how these noise/drone/improv scenes develop and support their members. I know Eric — who also departed these shores just recently — made neither a profit nor a loss (I bet he didn't pay himself properly). In London, New York or Berlin, there may be just about enough people in the scene to cover the costs of putting on a gig or issuing a short run of CDs (not even Gayle has any Peter Wright in her catalogue any more). But in Auckland or Wellington? How do these people sustain themselves and their enthusiasm? Someone should do a study of these truly underground scenes, not just the indie rock you get in Empire of Dirt.

I have to admit I'm droned out now, but I think it's safe to file it under "interesting curios" again, combining as it does elements of Irrlict, July Skies, found sounds/acoustic ecology and… some other stuff that I can't quite put my finger on just now.

And though the CDs may be hard to track down, three of Peter Wright's albums, including this one, are currently available on eMusic.